So why are they still so bloody expensive in the UK? Amazon seems cheapest at £150, or around $300!

Grrrrr

I was able to get a DMA 2100 at circuit city for 150.00 and I am pretty happy with it.  I hate to be a pessimist but all signs point to linksys leaving the market which is not good for VMC.  

I will say that I am pretty happy with the DMA 2100.  Although I will admit that the poor animation and washed out, low rez colour of the Start Menu was shocking when I turned the device on for the first time.  Outside of that, the extender experience has been very good.  Live TV (even HD) works flawlessly over an N Wifi network.  
One thing I woud like to see addressed is additional codec support.  The lack of MKV support is a real downer.  Trying to figure out the best way to transcode my MVK's into MP4 or WMV while retaining 5.1 and pristine picture quality has been difficult to say the least.
Hopefully, before Linksys gets out of the market they can release one more firmware upgrade that includes MKV support.

Hey mark1234, I hear ya, they are still listed at $289 here in Canada.  They never go on sale here.  I was lucky enough to have my wife on a business trip in Atlanta when Circuit City offered them up for $150.

Just checked and it said $250..

Actually...if you use HDMI, the color is much better on the Linksys extenders.  Back on topic, I would hate to think that the only v2 extenders could be XBOX360s in the near future.  Ugh, just too damn noisy and too damn big. We had an XBOX360 in the bedroom for an extender and now that we have had the Linksys for a few weeks I can't imagine going back.  It just sits right next to our Panasonic Plasma, the XBOX had to go on its own shelf.  

<shudder>

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that Linksys is leaving the MCE market.   If you look at their parent company's recent actions (very evident with yesterday's acquisition announcement), it is obvious that they are competing head to head with Microsoft.  With Scientific Atlanta within the same company, it isn't a stretch to see them come out with their own centralized media "Server" (media indexing, content guide, OCUR or IPTV tuners, etc) and an "Extender-like" device that would be a very thin Linux-based device,  maybe even using Flash as its media player.  I think CES 2009 should be very interesting!

If Linksys can't commit for more than a year to "extending" I am starting to doubt that MS is really that committed to Media Center either.  I am starting to think that Microsoft's aquisition of TGB has some pretty under-handed reasoning to it as well.  It will be easier to control the "experts" when it is made public that Windows 7 will not have Media Center but will have support for Media Room.  Q.

http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com/#

Yep, it doesn't take a psychic to see that Microsoft is going to be pushing Mediaroom as their "newest & greatest" multi-media convergence platform. The graphics displayed in the demo make it look very exciting, it's like they gave Media Center a complete facelift! My guess is Mediaroom will be marketed & sold as an add-on product rather than being included in Windows as an "added value" feature = more $$$ for MS! It also may explain why Linksys is "dumping" their extender inventory as I'm sure the've had an advance look at "the writing on the wall" way before the rest of us. The question is: are they going to offer a "V3?" extender to compliment Mediaroom? or are they getting out of the extender business all together?

I still am not 100% positive that this price drop means Linksys is done with extenders.  My second guess is that these things never cost that much to make and now they are being sold much closer to cost.  Another possibility is Linksys may be introducing redesigned models to match their new look network gear...I really hope that's all...Q

Aug 29 6:13 EST they are back up to $149

I this this patch drop has more to do with the XBox360 pricedrop that is expected.  Think about it, why would you pay $250 for a Extender when you could get a XBox360 for $199.  Most still prefer the 360 experience then an actual extender.

Mediaroom is their intelligent cable box product.  How does that have any connection to the future of Media Center?

It looks like Mediaroom is a Microsoft IPTV solution.

http://www.microsoft.com/tv/content/Press/PressReleases/AssuranceIPTVPR.mspx

Mediaroom is a retail product.  Media Center is something MS added to it's OS.  The OS doesn't change with or without Media Center.  MS can still charge whatever they plan to charge for Windows 7 even if it doesn't come with this add-on called Media Center in it.  There is no guarantee that Media Center will continue to exist if it's having no effect on OS sales.  Mediaroom can be sold all by itself and made to work very quickly on an XBOX 360 which is hardware that you buy from MS as well.  Mediaroom + XBOX 360 = money for MS.  I think it's got a lot to do with Media Center and it's future.  There is one problem though, it will take partnerships with companies that at this point see no reason to get into Mediaroom and Media Center does have that going for itself...Q

I was putting together a new Dell Studio Hybrid for a Blu-ray solution and I noticed something.  The DMA 2100 is still available as an add-on accessory.  It's on sale like lots of the add-ons.  The sale price is 128.  It's regular price is 150.  So it would seem to me that $150 is the new price and not a slash and burn price.  I bet these things cost a lot less to make than people think.  In typical Linksys fashion they were way overpriced for 10 months or so just like anything else they introduce and then continue to sell for a couple of years.  I still think we will see a re-styled extender from Linksys at some point to match their other network gear and the boxes the 2100 are cased in were a result of rushing these babies out in time for the fall/winter release they had last year...Q

Please note the phrase, "by enabling broadband service providers" in the quote below...

Quoted from the URL provided above:

About Microsoft Mediaroom

The award-winning Microsoft Mediaroom Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and multimedia software platform is driving the future of television by enabling broadband service providers to deliver new connected TV and entertainment experiences to consumers worldwide. Microsoft Mediaroom provides new ways for consumers to experience TV as part of their connected, digital lifestyle, while also creating new business opportunities for broadband service providers, hardware manufacturers, content creators, advertisers and application developers. Over 20 of the world’s leading service providers across four continents have selected the Microsoft Mediaroom platform to drive their digital TV services. More information on Microsoft Mediaroom and the opportunity to deliver the best in TV plus all your media in one place is available at http://www.microsoft.com/tv and http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com.

This is not a retail product.  It is a STB product for cable companies...a closed environment with single hardware and single data/TV provider.  Media Center is a whole different beast supporting a wide variety of hardware and sources for both data and TV services.

It is a retail product.  MS sells it to cable customers via the cable company.  That's exactly what a retail product is.  I am not gonna sit here and play the wishful thinking game with you.  I don't want to see Media Center go anywhere but it's offering less and less "services" as of today.  MS doesn't make a single dime on Media Center.  I am not gonna play the wishful thinking game with you...Q

A retail product is one that is widely available from retail stores.  I cannot go to my local BestBuy store and pickup Microsoft MediaRoom.  Nor can I buy it online.  

It is offered thru a small number of broadband service providers and various markets throughout the world.  And I bet it is only available for a monthly fee...not somehting that one can purchase (ie: pay once and use it forever).  It has no similarity nor will it ever likely have a "retail" purchase-able extender.  If one  were to ever exist it would be via a monthly fee to the cable company.

I am discussing reality not "wishful thinking".  It is "wishful thinking" to call MediaRoom a retail product.

Mediaroom is not a retail product.  It is the platform to deliver IPTV content to the end user via set top boxes.  AT&T U-Verse uses mediaroom and is the largest client, at least in the US.  The platform can be customized by the client (AT&T) to add logos and special sections.  There is no additional fee as far as I know, unless enabling the media sharing aspects requires a fee.  Just think of it as STB software.

From Microsoft's point of view it's retail.  They sell it on a per box basis through broadband service providers.  If Comcast were to offer it at some point and made it available for my XBOX 360 I would have to purchase it.  Even if I am paying a monthly fee to Comcast a purchase price must be covered for the software.  I guess you really can't call it a retail product.  But I was just trying to make a point that MS can make money off of it along with sales of XBOX 360s.  The only problem is that companies like Comcast just don't want to get in that business with MS.  As anyone can tell, Comcast doesn't want to have to do what AT&T is doing to provide such services.  MS needs to start making a better return for it's media offerings.  I am shocked that there is no Media Center Marketplace or the ability for Media Center and XBOX Live to coexist.  They would get tons more money out of me if it did.  I occasionally purchase video for the 360 which will only play on the 360.  I get all my music on Zune.  Why a whole year has passed since extender talk started and nothing has happened to bring this marketplace together is beyond me.  I was just trying to say that if MS doesn't bring all these things together the extender market and quite possibly the Media Center arena will just be out of date....while Mediaroom will always have some sort of future($)....Q